A Most Optimistic Man: Challenging Complacency

By Akio Matsumura
The United States and Japan are both plagued by suicide. Many people are taking their own lives out of a sense of isolation and loneliness. Although the circumstances for the two cases are distinct, the challenge to both countries–overcoming complacency–is the same.

A few weeks ago someone called my cell phone and started speaking to me in Japanese. I answered in Japanese but knew it was foreigner’s voice. The person on the other end said he had studied Japanese for five years at a high school in Australia. We continued talking, mixing Japanese and English, and laughed. This short conversation let me forget a moment that I was talking to a person with no arms or legs. It was Mr. Nick Vujicic. On the phone, we planned to meet at his friend’s apartment in Central Park West. He arrived, rolled his wheelchair into the lobby, and we chose a quiet, private place to chat. His staff lifted him out of the wheel chair and into a chair at the table. They placed his iPhone before him and left, leaving us alone to meet. I wondered how Nick would let his staff know when our meeting ended.

After we spoke for an hour and a half, he slid his nose across the screen of the iPhone to unlock it. He called his staff and asked them to bring a camera so that we could take a photograph together. I told Nick I was amazed to see him handle the phone so fluidly. I cannot use one, even with two hands. He smiled kindly and with self-confidence. I am sure he was only able to do this through tireless practice, as he has conquered so many other difficulties.

During our talk we covered several items, but mainly focused on the types of conflicts I predict will continue through the rest of the century. Nick showed keen interest in the story of the Oxford conference, where spiritual and parliamentary leaders stayed in the student dormitories, sharing one bathroom per room, where Jewish, Muslims, Christians, other religious denominations and parliamentarians were living together. All participants worked to transcend their own traditional barriers. Nick clearly understood the rationale to transcend barriers because his life has been spent successfully overcoming innumerable challenges. I am convinced by his belief that a positive approach leads the way to a meaningful life. There is no wonder as to how he has encouraged so many young people, particularly those who’ve lost their confidence in their life.

Nick then asked me of my concerns about my country, Japan, where I have not lived for 36 years, and where he visited several times. I am most worried by Japan’s extremely high suicide rates. The smile left Nick’s face when we took up this matter. He persistently asked what caused such extreme rates in Japan.

More than 30,000 people committed suicide in Japan in the last year—for the twelfth straight year. This does not count who those who died at the hospital after or failed in their attempt. Some people suggest an even larger figure of 100,000 suicides a year. When I occasionally visit Japan, I ask many people why this problem plagues Japan, and what is being done to stop it. No one answers me seriously. I have the impression that they think there is nothing they can do to solve or help the issue. Like Nick, I have been puzzled for a few years on why Japan’s people have not been able to take this problem more seriously.

America has a similar problem. In this blog I often stress that war takes a different toll on a society than other social and economic issues. Its effect is unique, disastrous, and extends across generations. One major effect is high suicide rates among veterans.

In late October, Mr. Bob Herbert, the New York Times columnist, wrote “The Way We Treat Our Troops.” His report of suicide and death among veterans is a must-read. It shows the debilitating effects our wars abroad are taking on our troops back at home.

It shocked to me to learn the story of the death of Sgt. First Class Lance Vogeler, a 29 year old who was killed a few weeks ago while serving in the Army in his twelfth combat tour—four in Iraq and eight in Afghanistan. Multiple tours—three, four, five—are the norm. And it is no surprise that veterans of the two wars are much more likely to commit suicide, or die by other means, than people the same age with no military service. “They were twice as likely,” Mr. Glantz reported, “to die in a vehicle accident, and five-and-a-half times as likely to die in a motorcycle accident.”

taken from Inspire me now http://bit.ly/f8Ezf4

I would like to make it clear that the Japanese and Americans commit suicide under different political and social circumstances. Yet the social responsibility to respond this critical issue is the same. The struggle and sense of loss for each family is the same, after all, and the reason the person chooses to die is the same—we are unsympathetic to their incredible loneliness and desperation. As a society we do not know how to include our members who have been through such extraordinary experiences.

Our situation reminds me of the case of the frog in a pot of water. If we raise the temperature very slowly, the frog fails to notice the increase in heat. The frog does not recognize the water’s alarming temperature and eventually dies.

Everyday on television we see death through coverage of wars, genocide, tribal conflicts, terrorism, drug violence, and violent movies. We become complacent in the face of tragedy and blind to the meaning of the life of the human and animal. Many politicians and religious leaders have forgotten their mission to take care of their weakest members and show the passion for each life. Nick Vujicic impressed me with his relentless optimism and vitality in the face of so many struggles. That exuberance is the shock needed to escape the complacency that weakens our societies.

Our pot has already come to a roaring boil—will we, like the frog, fail to notice before it is too late?

I read your article, "A Most Optimistic Man: Challenging Complacency," with keen interest. In many of the columns on my website, what I often take up is the Japanese extraordinary high ratio of suicide as compared with that of the Filipinos. This comes from nothing but my mission-like intention of introducing the Republic of the Philippines and its people, from the eyes of a Japanese man who is determined to spend the retired life to the end of my life.

I would say that people need to learn how a person like Mr. Nick Vujicic, with no arms and legs, could live such a wonderful and meaningful life, affecting so many people! A person like me, only crippled from polio, should learn from him to have not a single complaint in my heart. My thanks go to Mr. Nick Vujicic and Mr. Akio Matsumura. I recall the good old days when I had the honor and pleasure of meeting and talking with Akio in Japan before coming to the Philippines, which is my last and lovable place to spend the rest of my life, which I call The Fourth Stage of my Life.

After recent conversation with a few soldiers back from deployment, they shared with me the following points of note.

Soldiers are trained to handle extreme pressure. Although some never actually make it to battle, those who do, upon return are presented with a twofold problem.

1. While deployed they either experienced such extreme and violent circumstance that it's difficult to shake the sensory images burned into their memory.

2. For those who manage to cope with the extreme memories, they're faced with the fact that not much in civilian life compares to the extreme adrenaline rush for which they were trained and experienced. Which offers explanation as to why some soldiers are deployed for 12 terms as opposed to armed forces oversight.

In either case, it leaves soldiers with a sense of desperation, boredom or depression; which leads to questioning the value of / purpose for their remaining life.Solutions for the problems may be different in that one definitely requires clinical help and the other although can be attributed to addiction of adrenaline, may just be engagement of the mind and body for higher purpose.

Your article is a real heart touching in its both perception; Nick struggling successfully against the challenges of the life and alarming suicide ratio in the most develoed countries of the world. Nick has not only set an example of initiating challenge in oneself but also provoked a question for others; why people commit suicide? It might be their unbearbale pain, injuries, poverty, intensity of grief, whatsoever problem arises suicide is not the solution. I make my humble request to Nick to find the answer of that question and set his target to decrease the ratio.I also admit that Akio smartly and cleverly makes the connections between positive perception and todays world by highlighting some crucial and critical issues. Akio, you must enlarge the circle of daring people who bring the positive change in our societies with the same understaing of yours. We all have a little Nick hidden inside us but only a little effort is required to uncover him.

[…] is a lifetime of anguish for a family member. I would argue, however, that suicide and PTSD are the real American human tolls of the war. Families are broken and young men and women come home lost, without organization or commands in […]

[…] a lifetime of anguish for a family member. I would argue, however, that suicide and PTSD are the real American human tolls of the war. Families are broken and young men and women come home lost, without organization or commands in […]

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Finding the Missing Link is a project by Akio Matsumura to connect people, information, and ideas to provide effective and innovative solutions to new types of international problems. Read more.